Pay up or shut up. Trumps right about NATO. Rand and Lee agree.

[phill4paul]

Senate takes swipe at Trump with pro-NATO vote
Ted Barrett-Profile-Image
By Ted Barrett, CNN

(CNN)The Senate took a bipartisan swipe at President Donald Trump on Tuesday when it overwhelmingly approved a motion of support for NATO.

The 97-2 vote reflects the broad concerns on Capitol Hill over Trump's seeming ambivalence about the alliance and his commitment to it.

The vote came the same day Trump arrived in Brussels, Belgium, for a summit of NATO nations and shortly before he heads to Helsinki, Finland, for a one-on-one session with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Before he landed in Brussels, Trump tweeted some of his concerns about NATO:

"Many countries in NATO, which we are expected to defend, are not only short of their current commitment of 2% (which is low), but are also delinquent for many years in payments that have not been made. Will they reimburse the U.S.?"

Sen. Jack Reed, the Rhode Island Democrat who authored the nonbinding motion, spoke on the Senate floor.

"No one should ever doubt the United States' resolve in meeting its commitments to the mutual defense of the NATO alliance," Reed said.

"Unfortunately, this motion has become necessary because some of our closest allies have come to question the US commitment to collective self-defense. President Trump has at times called the alliance 'obsolete.' Our allies are starting to wonder whether they can rely on the United States to come to their defense in a crisis."

In an interview on CNN, Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the third-ranking Senate GOP leader, explained why the motion was needed.
"I think it is important that we demonstrate a strong commitment to the NATO alliance," Thune said. "I mean this is something that has served freedom-loving countries well for half a century."

The motion also called on the administration to "urgently prioritize the completion of a comprehensive, whole-of-government strategy to counter malign activities of Russia that seek to undermine faith in democratic institutions in the United States and around the world."

Critics have repeatedly accused Trump of being too close to Putin and not responsive to evidence of meddling by Russia in the last US presidential election.

Two GOP senators, Mike Lee of Utah and Rand Paul of Kentucky, voted against the measure.

"Why is the U.S. Senate pushing to expand NATO when most of them aren't even paying their fair share? I stand with @realDonaldTrump," Paul said in a tweet.

Lee's office did not immediately respond to a request for an explanation why the Utah senator voted against the measure.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/07/10/politics/senate-nato-vote-trump/index.html

 

[Zippyjuan]

Will this be a repeat of the G& week where Trump goes to Europe, criticizes countries which help support the US and then fly off and be buddy buddy for a photo op with another dictator? (yeah- Putin was elected but he got to choose his own opposition so it doesn't count) He likes authoritarians.

 

[Swordsmyth]

Will this be a repeat of the G& week where Trump goes to Europe, criticizes countries which help support the US and then fly off and be buddy buddy for a photo op with another dictator? (yeah- Putin was elected but he got to choose his own opposition so it doesn't count) He likes authoritarians.

"Help support the US" LOL.

 

[phill4paul]

Will this be a repeat of the G& week where Trump goes to Europe, criticizes countries which help support the US and then fly off and be buddy buddy for a photo op with another dictator? (yeah- Putin was elected but he got to choose his own opposition so it doesn't count) He likes authoritarians.

Will it? We don't know, do we? But, This thread ISN'T about Trump. It's about the Senate and their support of NATO. Thanks for playing Zippy.

 

[oyarde]

The US should not be paying for any NATO or UN .None . It provides no benefit to the american taxpayer.

 

[AuH20]

The senate may as well be a foreign body. Scumbag Vichy politicians.

 

[phill4paul]

The US should not be paying for any NATO or UN .None . It provides no benefit to the american taxpayer.

Pretty sure "Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations-entangling alliances with none." Doesn't translate to, "We'll pay for YOUR national security."

 

[AuH20]

Why do we need NATO when we have more in common with the Russians as opposed to the Western Europeans?

 

[Swordsmyth]

Why do we need NATO when we have more in common with the Russians as opposed to the Western Europeans?

To keep us from realizing that?
Also to bleed us dry.

 

[nikcers]

To keep us from realizing that?
Also to bleed us dry.

I didn't know that NATO controlled military spending and American foreign policy. This is news to me, I always assumed that the only reason why NATO doesn't pay up is because we do, that if we weren't policing the world the world wouldn't feel so safe that they don't spend anything on their defense.

 

[Swordsmyth]

I didn't know that NATO controlled military spending and American foreign policy. This is news to me, I always assumed that the only reason why NATO doesn't pay up is because we do, that if we weren't policing the world the world wouldn't feel so safe that they don't spend anything on their defense.

NATO is used as an excuse to keep us policing the world, it is time we shed the "obligation".

 

[AuH20]

The MIC will never let Trump and Putin unite as fraternal nations. They need boogeymen for their warfare state.

 

[nikcers]

NATO is used as an excuse to keep us policing the world, it is time we shed the "obligation".

Somehow I don't think that will do anything to decrease military spending. Somehow I think all it would do is make a power vacuum that the MIC would love to fill.

 

[Swordsmyth]

Somehow I don't think that will do anything to decrease military spending. Somehow I think all it would do is make a power vacuum that the MIC would love to fill.

 

[nikcers]

is the correct emotion.

 

[juleswin]

I was listening to the radio this afternoon and Kay Bailey Hutchison (Ambassador to NATO) was on there spewing her anti Russia and pro NATO talking point. I can never understand why the man surrounds him to globalists and neocons

 

[nikcers]

I was listening to the radio this afternoon and Kay Bailey Hutchison (Ambassador to NATO) was on there spewing her anti Russia and pro NATO talking point. I can never understand why the man surrounds him to globalists and neocons

You got to think of the brainwashing from other peoples perspective. Think about other people especially younger, where all they know is the narrative that they have been perpetuating. I can only imagine that the low information voter probably thinks Russia is hiding under their bed instead of ISIS anymore.

 

[Brian4Liberty]

Two Senators. The only ones that aren't part of the machine.

 

[AuH20]

Pathetic desperation.

 

[Anti Globalist]

Time to get the US out of NATO.